S.N.A.F.U.

Regarding the trim switch, you could have the wire chafing where it
comes out of the yoke tube behind the panel. The wire comes out a few
inches from the end of the tube through a drilled hole. For some
reason, there is no grommet on the hole, and it is just a matter of time
before the wires chafe.

Thanks, Ray -- I'll check that out.

For the temperature probe installation, you might want to plug it into
your EDM and test it before you button everything back up.

Great idea. JPI says they have a quick turn-around, but we'll see.
By the time everything is shipped back and forth, I'm betting on it
taking a couple of weeks to get this thing back in the panel.

For the side panels, there is a trick to getting the screws in. Use an
awl through the screw hole in the side panel to find the matching screw
hole in the aluminum, then push the side panel firmly against the
aluminum, get your screw ready, and then take the awl out and replace it
with the screw being careful to not move the side panel in the process.

I did exactly that. The toughest thing I had to do was reinstall the
seat belt, as the mounting bracket comes through a slit in my left
side panel, which is made out of a very stiff fabric-covered
plastic.

Getting that mount to come through the panel, and then inserting the
belt (with its little spacer), and then finding the hole with the bolt
(whilst going through the spacer and the bracket) required more than
two hands.

My A&P just laughed, saying "Now you know why I love owner-assisted
annuals..."

:-)

I used the L-R split switch that came with the skycraft
lights to replace my original landing light switch. The L side of the
switch is connected to the nose light circuit and relays. The R side of
the switch is connected to the recognition flasher circuit, which
connects to the wing tip lights on the lamp sides of the respective
relays.

I've got the Skycraft split switch, too -- but the AvTek flasher comes
with it's own switch, which activates the flashing/wig-wag process.
It's also got a speed control. It appears to simply wire in-line
with the landing light(s) circuit(s), although I didn't look at the
instructions to see precisely where before realizing that it was the
wrong model. I'm guessing it wires into the backside of the landing
switch, but that's gonna be a real SOB (why in hell Piper made getting
at those switches so hard is beyond me) -- so hopefully we can tap in
at the circuit breakers.

I still haven't gotten around to cleaning my airplane since getting back
from OSH.

Yeah, it's sad, but I was vacuuming up blades of Oshkosh grass. We've
been so danged busy at the inn that we've spent very few hours at our
hangar this summer -- far less than past years. Atlas is definitely
begging to be cleaned, inside and out.

I also still have to install the air gizmo for that 496 I
bought, which looks like it is going to involve removing the LORAN to
make it fit.

You'll love it, if you can find a shop to do it without involving your
FSDO. The Air Gizmo installation is one of the best things we've
done to our plane.

I did finally get the fuel flow upgrade for my JPI
installed, and just need to get the OAT probe working again.

I have the separate FS-450 fuel flow gauge in the panel, which
normally has been one of those "Boy, I wish I could add that function
to the EDM-700" kind of things (the 450 was in the panel when I bought
the plane, and I added the EDM-700 later). Usually I'd rather have
the extra panel space.

Now, of course, with the EDM-700 in a box, on its way to California,
I'm really glad to have the stand-alone gauge...

This whole thing is so danged predictable. What sounds so simple in
conversation ALWAYS seems to end up taking twice as long as
anticipated, due to one thing or another.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

Yeah, it's sad, but I was vacuuming up blades of Oshkosh grass. We've
been so danged busy at the inn that we've spent very few hours at our
hangar this summer -- far less than past years. Atlas is definitely
begging to be cleaned, inside and out.


Congrats on the plug in AOPA Pilot during the Catch-A-Cardinal flythrew...

Congrats on the plug in AOPA Pilot during the Catch-A-Cardinal flythrew...

Yeah, I just saw that today! If you look closely at the photo taken
on the ramp in Iowa City you can see Mary facing the camera, and me
with my back to it.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:


JPI made good on the quick turn for me. They had it in their shop
for 4 days when they did the fuel flow upgrade and added the internal
USB data download (that is really nice, no more fumbling with trying to
get windows to find a usb serial port etc, now I just plug in a USB
stick and it goes into program mode automatically, asks the dump all
question and downloads). They told me it would be 3-5 days, so I was
happy. It took longer for the round trip shipping than it did in the shop.

Jay, my flasher came with its own switch too, but it would have required
cutting a new switch hole, plus it looked nothing like the original
switches. Also, it would have meant 4 switches to control the landing
lights (one for each light, plus one for the flasher unit). That's why
I went with the relay circuit which I have up on my website at
http://www.andraka.com/images/plane/...ght_wiring.pdf. Assuming
you followed the skycraft installation instructions, each light has its
own switch and its own circuit breaker. Each switch is rated for 10A,
so you can only put one 4509 lamp on a switch. I don't have Avtek's
flasher, but I am sure his connects the same way as mine does (mine is
the one Skycraft offered when I bought the lights) with an output lead
connecting to the existing circuit between the landing lights and the
switches, plus a power lead coming from a separate circuit breaker and a
ground lead. The solid state switches in the flasher unit parallel the
mechanical switches in your panel, well actually the combination of the
solid state switches and the flasher's circuit breaker parallels the
switch and circuit breaker for each light. You can't tap in at the
circuit breakers, it has to tap in at the load side of the switch,
otherwise the flasher would only work when the landing light is also
turned on.

With my relay circuit, I replaced the wing landing light switches with
piper avionics relays, then removed the original landing light switch
and replaced it with the split switch from skycraft. The L side is
connected to the nose light circuit (i.e. it replaces the piper landing
light switch), and also connects to the coils on the two relays so that
the other lights go on with the nose light. The "R" side of the switch
replaces the switch for the recognition flasher, and the switch that
came with the flasher was discarded. The A&P put the relays in the log
as a logged entry--minor change-- along with the installation of circuit
breakers to replace the fuses I had.

My biggest concern with the gizmo is whether the viewing angle will be
too great to see the display. I intend to mount it at the bottom of my
center stack of radios (the six has a center stack and a second stack to
the right of it). I had been planning to mount it below my Loran, but
it looks like in addition to cutting the panel and extending the rails,
it also may not have enough clearance behind. Instead, it looks like
the best bet is to pull out the Loran, and put the gizmo in 2" higher
than I originally intended. That should help with viewing angles anyway,
but also does involve more work.